


Things That Go Bump in the Night

by marmolady



Series: Rourke Ending [3]
Category: Endless Summer (Visual Novel)
Genre: Choices, F/F, rourke ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 22:05:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19343578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marmolady/pseuds/marmolady
Summary: Post-ending (Rourke ending). Set after my previous Rourke ending fics, but probably easy enough to follow without reading them first. Haunted by nightmares, vivid flashbacks of horrors of a life she once knew, Estela fears she is losing control, and Taylor may be powerless to help.





	Things That Go Bump in the Night

A heavy thump and an almost simultaneous squall of sudden and intense pain shattered the late-night stillness. The whole room leapt awake, with Taylor clutching her face, eyes watering, and yelping piteously.

“Oh god!” Estela was alert with the sudden shock, horrified in the instant realisation of what had happened. Of what she’d done. “ _Taylor!_ ”

“It’s okay… it was an accident…”

“I can’t believe I…  _I’m sorry…_ god, Taylor, I’m so sorry- are you okay?”

Diego was bolt upright on the other side of the room, having almost fallen out of bed. “Wha- wha- what?” he stammered dopily.

Even as she felt herself trembling, Taylor tried to recover quickly. “It’s nothing; I’m sorry for waking you up so early.”

“Taylor, it’s not nothing!” Estela felt sick with guilt, that awful scream re-playing in her head. She flicked on the light. The side of her lover’s face was already glowing pink where she’d struck her, her eye streaming and squinting in pain. “Wait- do you have ice? Or frozen peas or… something?”

“Estela, you’re hilarious,” said Diego, slowly waking up, but still not quite sure what had happened. “What kind of students eat vegetables?”

Ignoring him, she had eyes only for Taylor. “I’ll… I’ll find something. Just s-sit down, okay?”

Once Estela had hurried away, Taylor let out a long groan.

Coming to, Diego looked at her with wide eyes, noticing the state of her face. “So… reading between the lines, and going by the way your cheek is swelling, I’m guessing your face got in the way when she was having a nightmare. For real- are you hurt?”

She winced. “It wasn’t her fault…”

_“Taylor, are you hurt?”_

“Of course, I’m fucking hurt! Estela’s flying fists and one’s face are  _not_ a happy combination. But it’s okay. Once I’ve stopped seeing stars, I’ll make sure she’s all right…  _god,_ the look on her face…”

The nights they’d spent together had been somewhat restless, but Estela had been finding that the closeness to Taylor had eased the memories, the flashbacks, the dreams that had her tossing and turning through the night. It would just take time to settle completely. The same had been the case for Diego when his realities collided and he accepted the truth of what the echoes were telling him. His period of transition, however emotionally turbulent, had at least presented Taylor with less of a physical hazard. And there was nothing more she could do… just to  _be there_ , steadfast and loving.

Estela returned quickly, a bundle of powdery snow wrapped in a towel in her shaking hands. She passed it to Diego as she entered the room, avoiding eye contact with both of them. Her own eyes were red and raw from furiously wiping away tears.

“Keep that over it. Should stop it from swelling too much. I’ll… I’ll go…”

“Don’t you even think about it! Come here… please. I need you.” Taylor scooted over to make the message clearer. She reached out her hand. “It hurts, but I swear,  _I swear_ I’m fine. That must have been a really bad one… are you all right, love?”

Estela couldn’t look at her. “You’ve got Diego. He’ll take care of you. I’ve gotta go… I…I’m sorry _._ ”

“ _Estela, please!”_

And then she was gone, leaving Taylor crying out plaintively for her to come back. “ _…Estela…”_

 

* * *

 

 

Feeling nauseous from the heavy blow to her head, Taylor stumbled around the apartment. “Diego, please, just go after her!”

He caught her as she almost fell, dazed. “She said to keep this over your eye, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you should listen…”

“We can’t just let her go-“

“Taylor, I dunno. I don’t think I should leave you on your own, and to be honest, it looked like she needed some space.” Diego held onto her stubbornly and guided her down into the couch. “Besides, you could have concussion; lie down. Actually… maybe we should get it checked out…”

“I’m  _fine!_  I don’t need to see a doctor- I need to know that Estela’s okay.”

“Okay, okay. But we stay here. Estela will come back in her own time, but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t want you risking your health to find her. And she wouldn’t want me to leave you knowing that you could take a bad turn. Just trust me, okay?”

 _Dammit, he’s right._ Taylor leant back into the couch cushions, and her dizziness eased a little. She reached for Diego’s hand as tears formed in her eyes. “…Diego…”

“I’m here…” he murmured, and squeezed her hand. To his relief, she seemed to settle, even though worry remained evident in her face.

Taylor felt sleepy… immensely sleepy. Her head  _throbbed._ When she cried, the tears stung her battered face. But worse than that, she was isolated from Estela. She couldn’t stand it. The woman she loved was hurting, and vulnerable, and out of reach. “I’m scared for her. I can’t even reach her -she didn’t even take her phone with her.” She breathed out, but she couldn’t stop herself from crying. “What Rourke’s done… it’s different for Estela. Most of us have had little details in our lives changed, nothing major on a personal level. But she’s had so much of her life twisted or erased; he rewrote it to get a hold over her mom. Now she can remember both lifetimes… and sometimes I think it’s tearing her apart. I just wanna make it all better… make her stop hurting… but if she’s away from me it’s worse. She said so. She needs me, Diego… but I don’t even know where she is…”

Diego could only gently hold his beloved friend, rubbing her arm until her whimpering cries slowed, then faded to silence as exhaustion finally sent her to sleep.

Awakened by daylight streaming through the blinds, Taylor sat bolt upright, dizzying herself in an instant.

_Ouch._

Once she’d stopped seeing stars, she glanced around the room. Estela hadn’t returned- where  _the fuck_ was she?

Zahra spoke from the kitchen, coffee in hand. “So, uh, I’ve been given instructions to keep you lying down and out of trouble or whatever…”

“Did Estela come back?” Taylor asked, holding her aching head in her hand.

“If she did, it was next-level ninja even by her standards.”

More carefully, Taylor got to her feet. This had been too long. “I’m going to find her- she was so upset. I can’t just stay here.”

“Eh, go ahead. I’m pretty sure Diego’s not paying me for this babysitting gig.”

The Hartfeld campus was white with snow, and the busyness of springtime had given way to small groups huddled together in doorways, sheltering from the bitter chill. Even rugged up as she was, Taylor felt the chill. Surely, she thought -she _hoped_ -, Estela, dressed only in a shirt and track pants, would have found somewhere warm to hide away. And so, Taylor made the rounds of every lecture theatre, every coffee house, the library, the bars, the study halls…

“Taylor?”

It was Grace. Even preoccupied by studying, she couldn’t help but notice the frantic searching of a… not really a  _friend_ , more of a casual acquaintance. Taylor had paced the length of the study hall some five times, with each visit looking increasingly distressed… and wobbly on her feet. Instinctively, Grace pulled out a chair.

“Are you feeling ill? Come here and sit down.”

Taylor pulled away. To be perfectly honest, she was feeling extremely nauseous, her head was spinning, and she was on the very brink of bursting into tears.  “I can’t, I… Grace, you haven’t… you haven’t seen Estela, have you? You know, my girlfriend…”

“Sorry, I haven’t,” Grace said, her brow furrowed. She reached out, seeing the rising bruise on Taylor’s eye. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” she replied, too quickly. “Just… don’t let me distract you. I know you’re under a lot of pressure.”

“Tayl-“

“I’ve gotta go.”

Taylor retreated back into the frigid air, tears hot against her cheeks. It had been a long time now; worry was steadily growing into panic. She began to hyperventilate, and had to run to a trashcan to throw up. Shaking and afraid, she didn’t know where else to turn. Then, she turned a corner and there, shivering in the sparse shelter provided by a bare tree…

“ _Estela!”_

Taylor bolted forwards and flung her arms around her wife. God, she was freezing cold. Relief became anger, and she gave Estela a forceful shove. “What.  _The Hell?_ ”

Estela hunched into herself, looking smaller than Taylor could remember ever seeing her. It only made Taylor more furious.

“ _Where have you been?_ I’ve been looking  _everywhere_ for you…”

“Taylor, I’m sorry…”

Taking a fistful of Estela’s shirt, Taylor pushed into her chest, trying to ignore the tears that were streaming down her face. “I know you’re fucking scared, but I’m scared too! I need you, I…” And she could no longer hold back the sobs.

Estela held her, feeling the sting of her own tears. She’d sworn she’d never hurt her Taylor… her Taylor… Jesus, this was all like a waking nightmare…

“ _Taylor…_  I’ve got you now…” Her voice became muffled as she pressed desperate kisses to her wife’s forehead. “I’m here… I’m so fucking sorry. For everything…”

They fell down together into the snow. Huddled almost impossibly close, they cried into one another’s heaving bodies, until no more tears would come.

“You shouldn’t be walking around with that head injury. You shouldn’t be alone.”

“You didn’t leave me much choice! I’m not going back to the apartment without you.”

Taylor hiccoughed and wiped her face with a sleeve, wincing as she did so. Once more, she saw shame flashed across Estela’s stricken face, and it hurt more than the injury itself.

“Hey…” she whispered, as she draped her scarf around her wife’s shivering shoulders. “None of this is your fault. And it’s just, it’s just a little bump. It’s  _nothing._  We’ll laugh about this. Not, like,  _right_ now, because smiling hurts, but we will.”

Her shoulders slumped, Estela looked down. How could she ever laugh about this? The last person she’d ever want to hurt…

“Estela… please don’t pull away from me over this. Compared to how it feels to be apart from you…” Taylor shuddered and found herself crying again. “I just… I can’t do this without you. I just  _can’t.”_

Estela finally met her eye, her hands reaching to cradle Taylor’s poor bruised face, to delicately stroke away those tears. She traced the trail of her fingertips with the lightest of kisses, until her wife’s ragged breathing soothed.

“It was Lila,” she said, simply. “Really fun flashback.”

“Oh.” Even as it physically hurt her to do so, Taylor kissed Estela again and again; her cheeks, her nose, her forehead, letting the action speak for itself. It was small wonder she’d been tossing and turning so violently.

“I’m scared.” Estela spoke shakily. “It’s all just so, so…  _Fuck!_ This could all fall apart any goddamn moment _._ I don’t know if there’s a way out of this. We could win, we could take Rourke down, and I could still lose everything. Lose  _you._ I’ve almost got my head around the fact that I can’t save my mom- the mom who’s real to me was murdered when I was fifteen. But you? I won’t let you be collateral damage, Taylor. When I heard you scream like that…  _god,_ it just scared the shit out of me. I can’t bear to be someone who’s capable of hurting you.”  

Taylor delicately tipped Estela’s face towards hers, exchanging a look of tenderness and caring, and then their lips met, soft and sweet. She savoured the taste, the feel of that caress… otherworldly in its euphoric beauty. It was just… love.

“And  _I_ can’t bear to be apart from you. It’s… hard to put into words. How much I need you. I know you don’t want me to suffer with you, but it’s what I’m here for. Any burden on your shoulders is mine to carry too. I wouldn’t want it  _any_ other way. My love…” She kissed her again, urging her to feel that they were safe in their togetherness. “I believe in us. You’re better with me, I’m better with you. That’s all there is to it.”

 

* * *

 

 

The apartment, toasty and warm, felt heavenly as Taylor and Estela came through the door in one another’s arms. Taylor let herself be eased down into the couch, propped up against the pillows with gentle, freezing cold hands.

“Love, you’re so cold; you shouldn’t have been out in the snow without more layers on…” She kissed Estela some more, until her wife pulled away.

“Take it easy…” Estela grumbled. Even through her frown, affection was clear in her eyes. “I’m trying to keep it iced and you’re moving all over the place. Rest. No laughing. No kissing.”

“All right,  _now_ you’re being mean. If you won’t let me do it, can you at least kiss me?”

She hmphed, but moved in to delicately place a kiss on Taylor’s lips. “Now lie down. You get some more sleep, and I’ll just… uh…” Estela felt her cheeks flush as the feeling of guilt came rushing back.

“You’ll sleep with me. If it happens again, we’ll… I dunno, cover my head in bubble wrap or something. We’re in this together.”

With Taylor comfortable on the couch, Estela brought over a pile of blankets and hooked up the TV screen to her laptop so they could watch the day’s lectures after their nap. She twiddled with her phone for a moment before cuddling up to her wife.

“I sent Diego a message,” she said, “see if he wants to join us for a duvet day. Actually, I sent one to Zahra as well… but she’ll reply when hell freezes over.” Cautiously, she put an arm around Taylor, painfully aware that it was those very hands that had battered her so. But Taylor purred with delight at her touch, making quite sure that Estela knew that she needed her. Right there. Holding her… loving her. Slowly, the tension left Estela’s muscles, and she melted into her wife’s tender embrace. All at once, her lack of sleep caught up with her, tiredness crashing down upon her like a wave.

Taylor poked Estela in the ribs. “One more kiss? Pretty please?” She puckered her lips a little. “Don’t make me chase you for it; I might hurt myself.”

“So pushy…” came the low, growling reply. Estela pushed herself up, and slowly, delicately, she caressed Taylor’s lips with her own. When she came away, the look on her love’s face was painfully beautiful… sheer devotion. That wonderful, brave person who adored her so… Estela couldn’t promise her that she’d never hurt her again. The storm raging inside her, the one Rourke had inflicted, it might just consume them both. Taylor must have seen the shadows of fear and doubt cross her dark eyes, for she whispered-

“No matter what anyone or anything throws at us, you belong right here in my arms. I love you, Estela.”

And it was just enough. Estela sank back so that her head was nuzzled against her beloved’s chest, their arms wrapped around one another once more. She closed her eyes. This was one thing she’d never let Rourke burn.

“I love you, Taylor.”


End file.
